


the providence falconers are happy to select

by screamlet



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Character Study, M/M, Original Character(s), Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-22 14:57:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8289937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/screamlet/pseuds/screamlet
Summary: In 2009, Alexei spent his first week in America with his parents.





	

**Author's Note:**

> written for the fanzine [**welcome to the show**](http://jlzimmermann.tumblr.com/post/151849830920/dowload-mediafire-85mb-pdf-x-epub-all)

**** In 2009, Alexei spent his first week in America with his parents. From Montreal and the draft, the three of them and Lisa from the Falconers flew to Providence and immediately looked at ten apartments downtown before his parents bought him the seventh one on the list.

“Seven is a good number,” his father assured him.

“Three bedrooms for this price? You can stay here forever,” his mother said. “We get you a new washer/dryer for Christmas. These are just okay.” She looked at Lisa from the Falconers and Nancy the broker, and made sure to raise her eyebrows at them. “Just okay for this price.”

“You know, you can save something for Tosha,” Alexei said. “Your other son?”

His father gently slapped his cheek as they led Alexei out of his new apartment and back to the car to find him some furniture. 

The next Friday, a full week after the draft, Alexei drove his parents to Boston for their flight back to Moscow. When he visited the rink two days before, Lisa from the Falconers took him around the whole complex and he had stopped at every booth to look at the designs. They had showered him and his parents in one of every piece of Falconers merchandise they had, so Alexei was wearing their biggest zip up hoodie. (His father had a beanie and his mother had a pin tucked away somewhere in her purse.) 

“You should have gotten a sweater that fits,” his mother said. 

“This is how they wear them here,” Alexei replied. 

His father leaned forward from the backseat and scared the shit out of Alexei.

“You see how slow he’s driving? He’ll turn around and keep us forever.”

“Insurance here is crazy,” Alexei replied, tightening his grip on the wheel. “Like they don’t want you to use it or something.” 

“Why are you going into the parking? Just leave us here, we can find the plane ourselves,” his mother said. “We’re foreign, not stupid.”

“I need to stretch my legs,” Alexei replied. 

“Well, here, you can pay for parking and carry my bag like you’re not millionaire now,” his mother said as she climbed out of the car.

“There was a cap, Mama, it didn’t break a million.”

“And with bonuses? Did you read your contract? Did you read your lease? Will you read instructions on your new stupid coffeemaker?” She looked over her shoulder at Alexei’s father. “In a month, we get all these calls: _I think there’s a leak in the dishwasher, who do I call when the building is on fire, am I supposed to use a new coffee filter every time?_ ”

Alexei laughed. His mother roughly took his arm as they walked, but looked at him fondly. 

His parents already had their plane tickets and passports out, and both of them were old pros who didn’t check any bags unless it was a matter of life or death. Just before they reached the security area, Alexei’s mother let go of his arm and looked to her husband. “Go on, say goodbye to your son. Bond like you’re family.”

“Don’t let her miss me too much,” Alexei said as he leaned in and hugged his father. His father kissed his cheeks and hugged him tight. “You and Tosha don’t miss me either, okay? And I want emails for every game. Big essays with lots of criticism about my offensive play.”

“Are you kidding? You’re out of our house, Tosha will finish university now—we go on cruise. No hockey for at least a year.”

Alexei pulled back and let his father hold him by the shoulders for another moment. They looked at each other and his father nodded at him. 

“Good,” Alexei said. “If you’re not watching, I don’t have to try!”

“You think so?” his father asked. “Here, ask your mother.”

His father stepped aside so Alexei could approach his mother. They looked at each other for a moment before she pulled him in for a hug, almost pulling him off his feet even with one hand still on her cane. He hugged her back just as tight.

“This is home now,” his mother whispered. It was jarring to him that she was speaking Russian in his ear; they had been speaking English since they had landed in Montreal. (And French, of course his mother knew French, but he and his father were useless in French.)

“Mama, no—”

“You have to make a life here,” she said. “Don’t think you _must_ come back. Make a life here. We’ll give you anything you need, anything you want, but you have to make a life here.”

Alexei heard himself take a shaky breath. 

“So I can’t come on the cruise with you and Papa?”

“Buy a yacht and we’ll think about it.”

“Mama, you didn’t even ask if my building came with yacht parking.”

“What, I’m supposed to think of everything?”

His mother kissed his cheeks and hugged him again. He knew better than to doubt his mother, but he closed his eyes as he hugged her. _Make a life here_. Where did that leave them?

“Remember to eat a vegetable sometimes,” his father said. “Look at one. I talk to one of the neighbors and the park across from you has farmer’s market on Wednesday and Saturday. I want pictures.”

“Of the vegetables or the market?”

“You eating one vegetable! Eat a salad sometimes! And fruit!” His father shook his head. “He’s going to get scurvy. Second in the draft, first to get scurvy.”

“How am I going to get scurvy?!”

Just as he said that, Alexei’s parents descended on him for one last group hug. He kissed them each once more and then let them leave. He stood outside the security barriers, watching them, and would have stayed there except his mother turned around and shooed him away.

He waved at them and walked off, but they all knew better; he stopped some distance away and watched them leave. They didn’t look back. 

*

The next morning, Saturday, Alexei woke up before dawn, put on all his new workout clothes and his new sneakers, and went for a five-mile run. The long loop took him through his neighborhood, to the water, along the other side of the water by the university, and back. 

His apartment building was close to the river, so he cooled down and stretched by the river as the sun came up. He sat on a bench nearby and watched Providence slowly wake up.

Alexei pulled out the new Blackberry his father had shoved into his hands in Montreal. He looked up the population of his new home.

“172 _thousand_?” he asked. “The _fuck_?”

Moscow had ten million people just in the city; no wonder Providence was so quiet.

Alexei put his phone away and looked out at the river again.

“What the fuck,” he whispered under his breath. 

*

“Mama, the Russians went home for the summer.”

“So? You’ve been with Russians all your life. Go meet new people.”

“This place is like a farm, it’s not a city.” 

His mother laughed. “Remember when we took you to your aunt’s farm and you cried at the cows?”

“ _No_ , because I was a _baby_.”

“You were six or seven. You were too old to cry.”

“I have three bedrooms and a dishwasher. Now I can cry always. Maybe I will cry _in_ the dishwasher. You can’t stop me.”

“What about the washer-dryer? You break those already? GO MAKE FRIENDS.” His mother’s end of the line was muffled for a moment, and then she came back in full force. “Here’s your father. TELL YOUR SON TO GO MEET PEOPLE.”

“Your mother says to go meet people.”

His mother picked up another phone in the house. Alexei could almost see them, his father in the kitchen and his mother picking up the line either in his old room or their bedroom. 

“Do better than that,” his mother said. “Be his father, give him real life advice.”

“Oh, is that what I do,” his father said. “Go to a bar. Go watch a sport. I meet my friends at work or bar.”

“You have friends?” Alexei asked. “Okay, I will try bars. And coffee shops. Do they still do that here? Sitting and talking with coffee?”

“You’ve watched American TV all your life!”

“Yes it was TV, not documentary! Did I take notes? No!”

“I know you listened,” his mother said. “So you and your father could laugh about that stupid Chandler PIVOT joke on every staircase until I killed you both.” His mother sighed. “What time is it there? It’s still so early! Go out! Go make friends!”

“Mama, send Tosha here,” Alexei whined. “Make him be my friend.”

“You should text him and say that. It’ll make him laugh. His exams are very hard now.”

“Okay, I do that, I’ll text him more.”

“TOSHA, TEXT YOUR BROTHER. HE MISSES YOU AND HE HAS NO FRIENDS.”

“MAMA I’M BUSY,” Tosha yelled back.

“Text him anyway,” his mother said to Alexei. “Your brother can be your pen pal.” 

“NO I CAN’T.”

*

During his third week in Providence, quietly skating at the rink and practicing his drills alone, Alexei met Thirdy, who had just been traded from the Aeros after his third season. 

“How’s your English?” Thirdy asked as he laced up his skates to join Alexei on the ice. 

“Depends who I talk to,” Alexei said. 

Thirdy laughed and nodded. “We’re gonna be all right.”

“Aeros give you nickname? What does it mean, third what?”

“Bless them,” Thirdy said. “I’m Dante Newkirk Robinson III and all they got from that was Thirdy.” He shrugged as he joined Alexei on the ice. “We weren’t a good fit, but I’ll keep the nickname. Not bad by hockey standards. You got one?”

“My name has too many nicknames already. Famous mother, too, so I get all the baby nicknames.”

“Oh shit, I thought I’d heard that,” Thirdy said. “Your mother’s _that_ Mashkov, the Olympic skating coach?”

“Haha, they never let me forget. _She_ never let me forget. Yes, same one, Yustina Mashkov. She need a cane for years, so she come see my team sometimes and smack their legs if their form wrong. Not just for looking pretty but if form is bad, you get hurt.”

“Shit, I could use some of that. Hey, what are you doing for the Fourth of July? My wife and I are throwing a barbecue to win over our new neighbors—you up for it?”

“American barbecue? Like in movies? Yes please tell me everything!”

Thirdy, his wife Janell, and their daughter Natalie had found a house in the suburbs. They put a big screen and projector at one side of the yard and played _Independence Day_ while the barbecue went on everywhere else. They even had a bouncy castle for Natalie and the other little kids.  

“You are popular now! You won all the neighbors!” Alexei said to Thirdy as he filled another plate with literally everything. 

“I know, I’m so relieved,” Thirdy said. “Is that your phone buzzing on the table? Watch out, Natalie likes to play Hide and Seek All You Want but Daddy’s Never Gonna Find That Phone Again. It’s a _terrible_ game.”

Alexei picked up his phone from the edge of the food table and saw it was a text from Kent Parson. Kent Parson?

 

**PARSON:** hey uhhhhh weird question but who is this

you’re in my phone as flash gordon 

 

“Haha, Thirdy,” Alexei said. “Kent Parson has me in his phone as Flash Gordon.”

“Little young for Flash Gordon, aren’t you? Nah, I guess you can watch them one DVD at a time with that Netflix thing.”

Alexei cried out and looked at his phone. “No, it was song! Song from the shitty movie—”

“What, the Queen song?”

“Yes it was Queen!”

 

**MASHKOV:** parse they play queen song from flash movie at draft remember???

mashkov from falconers ))))))

**PARSON:** oh yeah that queen song

hey how’s rhode island u ok there

vegas is a dry piece of shit dude u got lucky 

blah blah grateful but also fuck 

**MASHKOV:** very cool here!!! downtown on the river there is always breeze

barbecue today? i am at barbecue also!!

**PARSON:** yeah maybe

it’s my birthday

guess i better find someone and do something

**MASHKOV:** your birthday 4th of july? like america?? parse go celebrate!!! happy birthday!!!!

 

Alexei looked around; Thirdy had left to shake hands with someone new, but Janell was talking to someone nearby. He cleared his throat and approached very slowly.

“I am sorry to bother,” Alexei said. “But could I have picture? Just find out Kent Parson’s birthday and I think he alone in new city?” Alexei shrugged a little. “Maybe thumbs up from big idiot make him laugh?”

Janell took the blurry photo on his Blackberry and let Alexei send it off before she touched his arm to get his attention. “Did you know him before he sat with you at the draft? The commentators wouldn’t stop talking about the top prospects sitting together.”

Alexei thought back to the draft itself and said, “I forget he was alone then too.” The draft already felt like it had happened years ago. “Parse was going to sit with Zimmermanns and then Zimmermann leave draft, so I drag him down to row with my family.” He bit his bottom lip and then looked to Janell. “Thank you for picture and amazing barbecue—not leaving, just want to say thank you and I have to make call.”

*

The next weekend, Kent Parson was in Providence. He brought Alexei a gift: an advance release of the PS3 Slim and _NHL 10_ , both of which weren’t out for another month.

“Don’t laugh at me,” Kent said. “I asked for some of the old _Spider-man_ games, but they’re single player.”

“So? You fuck up and we switch. No brothers or sisters?”

“I have a sister, yeah,” Kent said. “She’s six years older than me. She’s in med school, that's why she wasn’t at the draft. And why she wasn’t playing video games with me as a kid.”

“But what about parents?”

“Uh, they’re. You know. Dead? An accident when I was eleven. I lived with our aunt and uncle when I wasn’t in Rimouski. They’re not hockey people, but once they heard I was good enough to make it a career, they were all for it.” 

Alexei nudged Kent’s shoulder until Kent looked at him. 

“Sorry,” Alexei said.

“It’s fine, don’t feel bad for me. Your family already pity-adopted me at the draft.”

“ _Friendly_ , not pity. I know no one here.” Alexei gave the control to Kent. “Here, you start and I tell you funny-sad Spider-man story.”

“Is it funny or sad?”

“Depends on how I tell it,” Alexei said. “So I have a big sister, too, but only two years older. She died five years ago, this cancer that took her so fast. Literally months. I was fourteen and Tosha, little brother, he was eleven. Stasya was everything to us, _everything_ , and after funeral, we didn’t know what to do. I had hockey, he had school, but it was for nothing because Stasya was gone. So we need something and that is when _Spider-man 2_ happen in Russia and Tosha have idea to make me into real Spider-man.”

Kent died on the screen and put the controller down. “What?”

“What I said,” Alexei said as he grabbed the controller for himself. “Well, I say _what_ and then I say _sure okay_. Because Tosha is smart. You know how good I am at hockey?”

“I’ve heard,” Kent said.

“I am amazing at hockey, but Tosha is five, ten times better at science and computers than I am at hockey. Little brother skipped ahead three years in school. I leave to play hockey and finish school online so no one sees little brother make big brother look so stupid. Tosha so smart, he either put first Russian on the moon or he blow up the moon. Either way, moon belongs to Tosha.”

“He can have my share. Not like I’m using it.” Alexei was watching the screen and playing, but he could see Kent from the side. Kent was watching Alexei play, not watching the screen, and it took Alexei a moment to adjust so he could play, be watched, and talk at the same time.

“Tosha has idea to put these wires inside my layers to adjust accuracy of shot with little buzzes on arms and forearms to let me know if my arms were bent to best angle.”

“Totally legal, by the way.”

Alexei paused the game and showed off the inside of his forearm. “Whole thing Tosha built work good, even buzz at right time, but the heat from me and the gear and one tiny part of exposed wire—”

Kent leaned in and traced the crooked white lines along the whole length of Alexei’s forearm as he let out a long, low whistle. “Looks like another set of veins. Like, creepy scarred vampire veins.” Kent looked at Alexei and pulled his hand away. “What happened to Tosha?”

“What happened? Nothing. He was eleven and he was sad, and all the wires very bad quality. He cry on me and we go see _Spider-man 2_ again. He will finish university soon and keeps going until he becomes doctor or crazy scientist.”

“Wait—that bratty little goth kid with you at the draft, the one who gave me his seat? _That’s_ your mad scientist brother? Holy shit. I thought he got lost on the way to a concert or a Hot Topic.” Alexei died on the screen again and offered Kent the controller. “I still don’t know if that story was funny or sad. Funny: tween mad scientist almost electrocutes you. Sad: your sister died and he almost killed you, too.”

“I never think he do it so he can be only one left,” Alexei considered. “Maybe he wait until I get endorsements and worth more.”

“Seriously?”

“No! Tosha my little brother. He need to kill me, I let him, happily. He only need to ask.” 

“Suddenly glad my sister and I aren’t close,” Kent said. “God, fuck this game, it’s a lot harder than it looks.” 

Alexei motioned to the windows of his apartment. “Want to see outside? I think no casinos.”

Kent followed his gaze, then turned back to Alexei and nodded. “Yeah, outside’s good. I’ll buy you lunch.”

“Don’t need to keep buying things. Contract same as mine, remember?”

“Yeah, probably. You’re really good.”

“You surprised?”

“No, I’m not, just.” Kent shook his head and dug around the couch for his Aces cap again. “I’m not really thinking. I’m not really here, like, mentally. Sorry.”

“Food will help. We walk around and find something.”

“Is it weird I haven’t been hungry since the draft? The nerves, I mean, when you’re so—you just don’t want to eat, you know?”

Alexei led Kent from his apartment to the elevator. “I get like that before planes. You lucky we on different teams or you sit next to me and watch me shake the whole flight.”

“Really? But you’re so tall.”

Alexei laughed as they got into the elevator. “Good thing you have hat, miss it when it all comes down on you.”

“And hey, how can you be bad at flying?” Kent asked. “When Tosha finally gets that mad scientist moon rocket funded, who’s he gonna send? It’s gotta be you.”

“Not even think of that,” Alexei said as he grinned at Kent. “Better get good at flying. Moon is calling. You come, too?”

“Oh fuck no,” Kent laughed.

*

“Is ok to ask about Zimmermann?” 

Kent looked up quickly. “What? Yeah, he—he’s okay. His dad called me. He’s taking some time off from hockey.”

“You visit him, too?”

“No. I told them I did, I wanted to visit, I’ve got nothing but time until camp starts, but he’s gotta take care of himself first.” Kent looked down at his lunch with a strange look on his face. “Funny I’m hanging out with the guy who went second, either way.”

“You know, I think a little bit that maybe I go first? Maybe what make Zimmermann drop out make you drop out, too. Could be plague.” Alexei held up a hand. “Don’t tell me. His business.”

“You could sell it to a tabloid. It’s gonna get out any day now.”

“Why? We have money. And we have less competition for fancy prizes at end of season. I want some trophies. You and me, we fight for trophies.” 

Kent laughed under his breath. “Just trophies?”

“Points, too. You better scoring than me. Maybe not so many points once you see how good I do defense.” 

“We’re in the NHL now, man, you know what we’re _really_ competing for. You know.” Alexei watched Kent make a face and adjust his sunglasses, nodding with… enthusiasm? “For _chicks_.”

Alexei stared at him and took a long sip of his drink. “Does that face work with women?”

“C’mon, I was just—”

“Is that what you want, Kent?”

Their eyes met across the table, lingering on each other. Kent’s eyebrows arched slightly, interested in Alexei all over again.

“Man,” Kent said. “If only they knew.”

“What is there to know?” Alexei asked. “Just two draft picks eating lunch.”

Alexei watched Kent hide a half-smile in his drink, his eyes lifting slightly to meet Alexei’s again.

“I think I’m ready for more PS3,” Kent said.

“I hope you better at hockey than that,” Alexei said. “Have to be. _Have_ to be.”

“Maybe that’s my game—so terrible it’s endearing.”

“No, please, let me think you are bad at this one thing. Other thing is—shit, you know. Sleazy.”

Kent smiled across the table again. “Nah. Just… totally fucking hopeless at this.” He leaned in a little closer, elbows on the table, and whispered: “And you’re not? Isn’t your country like, super fucked up and repressed and shit? You’re not any cooler than me.”

“Not cooler, just better.”

Kent stared at him, wide-eyed, and waved for the check.

*

“Hey. Are you okay? You’re shaking.” A beat. “Oh, shit. You were _bluffing_. Oh my _god_.”

“Did it work?”

“OH MY GOD. YOU WERE BLUFFING.”

“Okay, guess it worked.”

“I’m so—fuck. This was your _first time_? I thought, like, first time with someone new, sure, but I was your first time _ever_?”

“Yeah. Are you mad at me?”

“What? No, no! I’m—holy shit. You fucking _played me_. Like a subway harmonica.”

“And we not even on the ice yet.”

“Does Moscow have a subway?”

“Yes. And harmonicas, too. Perfect picture. I see it so clear in my mind. Can’t believe I find another Tolstoy here in America. Mama, he plays hockey, too, can you believe it?”

“Listen, smart ass, now that I know? I’m gonna take you apart again, brick by virgin brick.” 

“Yeah? Promise?”

“YOU ARE NOT COOL.”

“I know. Come on. Show me again.”

*

They ordered dinner and spent the time between the call and the doorbell arguing about who would have to put on something over their briefs to go downstairs and pay the delivery person. 

Kent threw himself back on Alexei’s couch and folded one leg up, angling his thigh at Alexei as he raised his eyebrows. “You should go and answer the door so you can talk to a stranger in your post-virginity daze. Do you think they’ll _know_?” Kent covered his mouth and fake-gasped. “Mashkov, we’re not even _married_. I think that makes it a walk of shame.”

“I answer door,” Alexei said. “You are too embarrassing to let anyone else see you.”

“And Parson wins the faceoff. You’re not like, important in Russia, right? Your mom’s a coach, but I’m not gonna be taken away by the secret police in the night for defiling you?”

“Yes, absolutely. You think I go downstairs to get food, but actually I go to mail room, open secret door, find red phone. I make one call. Who will miss Kent Parson?”

“That’s kinda hot. I’d watch that movie.” 

Alexei pulled a t-shirt over his head and stood over Kent, doing his best intimidating loom before he kneeled by the couch. Alexei’s hand threaded into Kent’s hair as he smiled down at him. Kent pulled Alexei closer and shut his eyes; what bothered Kent before, like something that ate away at him, was slowly coming back. Alexei could see him trying to push it off a while longer. He wondered if his own face was so easy to read.

“What am I thinking?” Alexei asked.

Kent smiled, but it was done; the sadness had crept back into his open eyes. 

“You had a really good first time, and you’re sure it’s always gonna be this good.”

Alexei pushed Kent’s hair away from his face and kissed him. “Yeah, not bad.”

Kent narrowed his eyes at him. “Not bad what I just said? Or not bad the other stuff?”

“Guess. What am I thinking?”

The buzzer sounded through the apartment. Kent laughed a little.

“Time’s up.”

*

A few days later, Kent was leaving. That morning, Alexei’s cell phone buzzed and fell off the bedside table. Alexei startled awake, dove for it, and bounced Kent to the other side of the bed.

“Jesus, what the fuck,” Kent muttered as he grabbed one of Alexei’s pillows and pulled it down around his head.

Alexei answered, realized it was his mother, then ran back into the bedroom for his briefs and shut the door behind him. 

“Hi, hi, sorry, early here. Something wrong?”

“No, nothing, everyone is alive. _Are you_?”

“What? Mama, everything fine, I just—”

“You make friends?”

“Yes? Yes! I meet teammate, he just traded from Texas. I went to a barbecue! I called you after barbecue! Barbecue so good. I have sauce recipe now. It goes on everything.”

“You at barbecue for a week?”

“No, Mama, I was out. Gym, running, going out like you said. I meet people!”

“Hmm. Okay. Tosha passed his exams. He texts you?”

“He asked if for next degrees he should do one just robot thesis or one robot and biology thesis, and I say nothing because—robot biology??”

“He told me you said that,” his mother sighed. “Is Providence good? You still see it like a farm?”

“No, is not bad,” Alexei said with an exaggerated sigh right back. “Easier to sleep and wake up early to run. Tell Papa I go to the farmer’s market every week and they know my name.”

“Okay. If I tell him that, am I lying to Papa? He wanted pictures. Where are the pictures?”

“The phone takes bad pictures and I always forget to bring camera. But I take them next time! Tomorrow is next market, I promise, I take pictures of everything.” 

Kent chose that moment to creep out of the bedroom, acknowledge Alexei’s call, and approach the coffee machine in the kitchen. Alexei watched him, wincing at every noise, before he tuned in his mother again. 

“Sorry, I’m making coffee, say everything again?”

“You drink coffee this early? You ruin your stomach. You hate coffee this early _because_ it ruin your stomach.”

“It’s… iced coffee. I make it then put it to get cold. I drink it after I come back from running.”

Kent looked over his shoulder with a blistering, skeptical look that Alexei waved off. 

“You know ice will also make iced coffee cold.”

“Not the same, Mama. You know. Dilution.”

“Okay. Call me later, when the person making coffee in your kitchen stops distracting you. Love you.”

“What! There’s no—okay. Bye, Mama. Love you.”

Alexei hung up, buried his Blackberry in the couch, then walked back to the bedroom and cowered under every pillow and wrapped himself up in the sheets.

Soon after, Alexei heard Kent come back into the bedroom, bringing the scent of coffee with his voice. 

“Hey, just so you know? That was the cutest thing I’ve ever heard in my whole goddamn life. _Mama, is dilution_.”

Alexei groaned and Kent sat on the bed next to him.

“Why do you speak English to your mom?”

“She practices her English with me,” Alexei said. “She is popular as Russian international coach because she speaks more than Russian.”

“Huh. Never thought of that. Your English is really good.”

“Should be good. We learn it at school my whole life. Speaking it is so hard.” Alexei emerged from the pillows so he could look at Kent. “I’m a month here speaking only English and my mouth feels tired, making new sounds all the time.”

Kent nodded and put the coffee aside on the bedside table, then tapped his chin like he was thinking. “Has it gotten worse in the past week?”

“Little bit, maybe.”

“Maybe it’s all the _dick you’ve been sucking, Mashkov_.”

Alexei laughed and pulled Kent down into another kiss, another morning in bed before the drive to the airport. 

*

They saw each other again in October at the Falconers’ first game against the Aces. As the two teams warmed up, Kent skated to center ice and waited until Alexei came over. 

“Ready to fucking lose?”

Alexei’s eyes lit up. “You want rivalry?”

Kent grinned. “You’re tall and scary. You should yell at me, practice your Russian before you forget it all.”

“Team say I’m scary on the ice. You could get scared.”

“Get the fuck over yourself and start a rivalry with me, goddammit. I need something to keep me entertained while we kick your asses.”

Alexei thought, no, it wasn’t the best start to his NHL reputation to have his and Kent’s teammates pull them off each other, yelling before the game had even started. 

Then he saw how it made Kent laugh and he couldn’t think to ever be sorry.

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/screamlet) \+ [reblog](http://screamlet.tumblr.com/post/151953188836/) \+ [welcome to the show](http://jlzimmermann.tumblr.com/post/151849830920/)


End file.
